What's wrong with BB-8?
by Potat0S
Summary: BB-8 won't stop beeping, and Finn and Poe try to work out how to fix him. (Minor StormPilot elements :])
"… Poe? Why is he beeping?"

Finn's voice floated through the darkness and, at first, Poe Dameron didn't have a single clue what he was going on about. He had been woken by the other approximately seven seconds before the statement, and he was understandably confused as a result.

But, as the grogginess began to melt away, Poe listened. There was definitely beeping. A beeping that sounded a lot like BB-8. But it wasn't his usual communicative beeping. In fact, Poe had no idea what his droid was trying to tell him.

There was a moment of pause, and then Poe rushed out of the bed, and over to where Finn was crouched next to the little orange and white droid.

"Hey, hey, buddy, what's wrong?" Poe asked, his voice laced with worry.

The usually hyperactive droid was completely still, not even his head moving. He was stationary and, if it hadn't been for the constant beeping, it would have looked like he was powered down.

"He's okay, right?" Finn was looking at Poe, a mixture of concern for his boyfriend, and for BB-8 on his face. "I mean, it's nothing serious?"

Poe just shook his head. "I don't know. He's not saying anything, it's just a… just a beep."

It was high pitched, but not enough to be grating on the ear, and the beep rang out every four seconds. It was hardly deafening, but the noise wasn't quiet, and Poe couldn't quite work out how he had slept through it. He must have been more tired from the scouting missions that he had realised.

"So… So you don't know what it means?" Finn slipped his hand into Poe's, giving a small squeeze to try and reassure the other. "He's fine, he's probably just…" He trailed off. He didn't know what was wrong with BB-8 any more than Poe did.

"We've got to take him to an engineer," Poe said. Usually he could handle little things that broke on BB-8, but he truly had no idea what was going on, and he was too worried to start poking around in the droid's mechanics.

Finn nodded, standing up and pulling a jacket over his shirt, throwing Poe a cardigan. And then he paused. "Wait, how are we going to get him anywhere if he can't move?"

Poe looked up at Finn as if the answer was obvious. "We'll carry him."

"… Carry him?" Finn blinked a few times. "But… He's heavy."

"Then you'd better be careful, because I will never kiss you again if you drop him."

* * *

Five minutes later, Finn walked backwards out of the hut, shuffling awkwardly with his knees bent. And his face was screwed up in concentration as he put all of his effort into keeping the droid is his hands stable.

BB-8 was heavier than he looked, and even Poe was struggling. But he refused to drop his friend, even if he knew that it wouldn't do him any harm. Of course, it wasn't helping their concentration that BB-8 was still beeping continuously.

About halfway across the concourse, Finn's hands slipped, and BB-8 nearly went tumbling to the floor. Poe let out a noise that sound remarkable like one of R2-D2's squeals, and audibly sighed in relief when the droid was secure and stable again.

"Did you just… scream?" Finn asked, unable to stop a little smile from flicking onto his lips, despite the circumstances.

"Not now, Finn!" Poe grumbled back. But, as they approached the maintenance bay, he added a very quiet, "… Maybe."

Both of them chuckled weakly, sharing a look, before Finn awkwardly opened the door, and the two of them carried BB-8 into the bay. It was helping Poe to keep the calm, the little interchanges between him and Finn. He actually wanted to hug the other man, to take solace in his arms as his worry about BB-8 got worse.

Luckily, not everyone at the Resistance base was asleep. Kait, one of the engineers, was tinkering away at an old, very broken speeder, and she looked up as the two men brought the droid into the workshop. "Eh? What're you two doin' here?" she asked, standing up, a few wisps of her dirty white hair falling around her face as she tucked her wrench back into her belt, and almost skipped over to the two of them.

Poe was about to speak, but Kait shushed him before he could even get the word out. "Woah, I've never heard a droid make a noise like that before," she said, squatting down and peering at BB-8. "It's not a distress signal, and there shouldn't be anythin' wrong with him. He was only serviced a week ago, weren't he?"

Poe nodded, unable to pretend that he wasn't downright scared now. "He was fine before we went to bed. He powered down like normal, and no-one could have gotten in to tamper with him."

Subtly, Finn slipped an arm around Poe's shoulders, holding him as close as he could without blocking out Kait and BB-8.

"Hmm…" Kait hummed as she popped open a panel on the spherical droid. The head band that she was wearing had a torch stuck to it, and she flicked it on, shining a beam of light into the circuitry inside.

Finn opened his mouth but, without even looking up, Kait shot a, "Shush," up at him.

There was silence for the next few minutes – aside from the cutting beeping that BB-8 continued to emit.

But, after a while, Kait sat back on her heels, and looked up at Finn and Poe. "There ain't nothin' wrong with him. Well, I mean, there is, obviously, but there shouldn't be. Not mechanically, anyway. But I ain't an expert in astromech droids. Sorry, boys, I can't fix him."

* * *

Finn grunted lowly as he and Poe carried BB-8 across the concourse again. It was lighter now, and a few other people had woken. "It'll be okay," he said to Poe, though he didn't sound entirely convinced of that. "You can fix him, I know you can."

"Y- Yeah, I can fix him," Poe nodded, but his face told a different story. "I mean, I don't know what's wrong with him, and an engineer doesn't know what's wrong with him, and there shouldn't _be_ anything wrong with him… But I can fix him… What if I can't fix him?"

"… Okay, let's put him down," Finn advised, and the two of them gently lowered BB-8 to the ground.

There was a long pause, and the two men looked at each other.

And then Poe seemed to crumble.

"I don't know what to do, Finn!" Poe's voice came as a bit of a wail, and he sat down next to BB-8.

Finn immediately sat down beside his boyfriend, and pulled him close. "We'll find out what's wrong, and we'll fix it. Come on, if we could blow up Starkiller base, we can fix BB-8." Couldn't they?

"What's wrong with BB-8?"

Finn and Poe looked up to see Rey walking over to them. Standing up, Finn answered, "We don't know. He just… Keeps beeping."

Rey seemed to consider this for all of two seconds, and she then said, "Memory banks. It's probably his memory banks. They're full, more than likely."

Poe stood up as well, confusion on his face. "… Why would his memory banks be full?"

"Hold on a minute, you didn't know?" Rey's voice was filled with surprise, her eyebrows raised as she looked at her friend.

"Know what? Rey, what's going on?" Poe asked, a stern tone entering his voice.

"General Organa decided that, seeing how he was so good at keeping the map safe, that the best place to store the strategies was in BB-8, but actually within his memory banks this time," Rey explained. "She's had people working on a drive that can't be decoded by anyone who isn't part of the Resistance."

With a shake of his head, Poe replied, "No, I had no idea. I mean, I took him in for maintenance, and it took a little longer than normal for him to come back to me, but I figured it was nothing."

Finn suddenly interjected, "Rey, why would she tell you, and not Poe?"

"Actually, she only just told me," Rey responded. "The drive is finished. She asked me to bring it to you, so that you can transfer the plans onto it." She fished a little silver date drive out of her pocket, and handed it to Poe.

A smile had spread over Poe's face, and he looked at the drive, and then at BB-8. "So, the only thing that's wrong is that his memory is full!"

"… You're kidding me, right?" Finn still sounded a little annoyed, but, next to him, Poe was laughing as he crouched down next to BB-8.

"You little genius!" he grinned, taking the data drive from Rey, and plugging it into the droid. "You're a hero, buddy, keeping all of this stuff safe like that."

As all of the information that was stored in BB-8 ran out of him and into the data drive, the little droid suddenly whistled back into life, rolling backwards and forwards for a moment, before looking at Rey, then at Finn, and finally at Poe. And, when he saw Poe, he gave a little squeal of joy, nudging his friend's hands affectionately.

"Yeah, pal, I missed you too," Poe smiled.

BB-8 beeped appreciatively, and rolled around in a few quick circles, obviously very happy to be able to move around again.

"It's probably too late to go back to bed, isn't it?" Finn asked, a smile now on his face.

Before either Poe or Rey could answer, BB-8 gave a firm nod and whistle, and the three laughed.

"It's good to have you back," Poe grinned, taking Finn's hand and giving Rey a way as he, Finn, and BB-8 headed in the direction of the mess hall. "Too late for bed, but not for breakfast. And I think we deserve some breakfast."


End file.
